Bruce Pruitt

United States Army · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

The Hydrogeomorphic (HGM) approach is used for developing and applying models for the site-specific assessment of wetland functions. It was initially designed for use in the context of the Clean Water Act Section 404 Regulatory Program permit review process to analyze project alternatives, minimize impacts, assess unavoidable impacts, determine mit...

Many restoration projects' success is not evaluated, despite available conventional ecological assessment methods. There is a need for more flexible, affordable, and efficient methods for evaluation, particularly those that take advantage of new remote sensing and geospatial technologies. This study explores the use of illustrative small unmanned a...

Numerous studies have documented the shortcomings of wetland mitigation and voluntary restoration projects to achieve stated goals. However, despite these findings, there is little overall evidence that wetland restoration outcomes have significantly improved - and wetlands continue to be lost. There is general agreement among restoration professio...

Under rapid land use change, high demand on freshwater ecosystem services, and a growing appreciation for the value of functioning ecosystems, the Appalachian Piedmont has developed a multi-million dollar stream restoration industry. A comprehensive understanding of ecosystem structure, function, and process is necessary to effectively plan, design...

OVERVIEW: This technical note seeks to clarify concepts of metric development and application for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) ecosystem restoration projects. Metrics are herein defined as measurable system properties that quantify the degree of achieving objectives. Metric lexicon, types, and policies are reviewed to adequately provide rea...

Designed as a textbook, this volume is an up-to-date survey in ecology of freshwater and estuarine wetlands. Prominent wetland scholars address the physical environment, geomorphology, biogeochemistry, soils, and hydrology of both freshwater and estuarine wetlands. Careful syntheses review how hydrology and chemistry constrain wetlands plants and a...

Wetland regulation and policy in the United States is dictated by an amalgam of statute, regulation, judicial decisions, administrative policy, and public sentiment that has changed many times over the decades and continues to evolve even today. The laws passed by Congress from approximately 1965 to 1985 remain the foundation for most environmental...

This document is intended as a reference that can be consulted by regulatory agencies, resource managers, and restoration ecologists in order to select, adapt, or devise stream assessment methods appropriate for impact assessment and mitigation of fluvial resources in the CWA Section 404 Program.

In a climate of limited resources, it is often necessary to prioritize restoration efforts geographically. The synoptic approach is an ecologically based tool for geographic prioritization of wetland protection and restoration efforts. The approach was specifically designed to incorporate best professional judgment in cases where information and re...

As an integral part of the comprehensive water quality investigation of the Chattooga River watershed, an ecological and sedimentological study was conducted on selected stream reaches within the study area. The objective of this study was to conduct a sediment yield study and determine if sediment was a primary cause of physical and biological imp...